Media

On Thursday November 25 Burt’s Greenhouses received a L&A Economic Development Agricultural Operation of the Year Award presented at the Strathcona Paper Centre Banquet Hall.

Burt’s were voted the Agricultural Operation of the Year by a group of business leaders in Lennox and Addington. The other nominees were Mountain Road Simmentals in Tamworth and Poplar Dell Farms of Amherst Island.

Burt’s greenhouses are a progressive grower of bedding plants, perennials, shrubs and vegetables in the Kingston area. They were established in 1981 by Ruth Hayward and Brian Burt. They grow at their location near Odessa and sell there as well as several satellite garden centres located in Kingston, Napanee and Belleville.

Over the years Burt’s have had a reputation for being first adopters and innovators in the greenhouse industry.In 2007 and 2009 Burt’s were winners of the regional Premier’s Award for Agri-Food Innovation Excellence. Burt’s started at a modest 8000 square feet of growing space and have now expanded to 50,000 square feet of greenhouse space and an additional 40,000 square feet of outdoor space.

The greenhouses are a mixture of appropriate technologies that have been implemented over the years ranging from our 1947 Farmall Cubs to our modern automatically controlled biomass stoker system.

Burt’s have taken a special interest in moving toward more sustainable systems of production. Since 2001 they have been using biological pest control to control insects and diseases. Since 2006 they have been heating the greenhouses with a biomass heating system.

The County of Lennox and Addington Economic Development Coalition mandate is to advise the Council of the County of Lennox and Addington concerning business promotion and development matters in an attempt to enhance the County’s position as a preferred business and tourism location.

The L&A Economic Development Awards are sponsored by the following groups;